Carb Commando - Low Carbohydrate Food

Low Carbohydrate Food -- Not Just Diet Food

Ups and downs of low carbohydrate food

Go to a dinner party these days and you'll probably meet both carbohydrate boosters and carbohydrate haters. For carbohydrates have once again become a battleground in debates about healthy eating. They're what you're supposed to fill up on when you cut down on fat, says one side of the table. Or they're what's making Americans fat, according to the other side. Yet most people don't really know what "carbs" are. Many of the boosters and haters talk as if all carbs were the same (not true).

A few years ago the cry was "low-fat" or "nonfat," as new food products came on the market positioned to appeal to the weight-conscious and health-conscious. You could avoid most fat but still eat your ice cream and cookies. In some ways the trend to low-fat and fat-free foods was beneficial; in other ways it was not. Nonfat milk is a good thing, but nonfat junk food is still junk food, of course. Many consumers failed to notice that a low-fat cookie often has as many calories as the regular kind, and many assumed it was okay to eat the whole box.

Now the craze is for low carbohydrate foods. If you've been to the grocery store lately, or even to McDonald's or Blimpie, you've seen promotions for low carbohydrate food. Many breads, sandwiches, muffins, pasta, cereals, tortillas, pizza crusts, beer, cakes, cookies, and other foods now bear low carbohydrate labels. While the health claims are seldom spelled out, the implications are clear.

If you're following a low carbohydrate food diet (such as Atkins) that forbids or severely limits bread, pasta, and other starchy foods, especially those made with white flour, you might think, well, here's a way to eat some bread and still stay on the diet. Indeed, many low carbohydrate food products are sold under the Atkins brand name. Or perhaps you're not on any diet but are just calorie-conscious. You may conclude, logically enough, that a food lower in carbs is also lower in calories. Or you may buy the new stuff because you're attracted to new products, and you think that there's a law against false claims on food labels, so you conclude that low-carb claims must be (a) true and (b) meaningful.

In fact, "low-carb" is not what it seems. And any benefits these foods might offer for weight loss or nutrition are debatable, at best. If you replace carbohydrates with protein (that's the main change), you still have just as many calories. Furthermore, the labels are, essentially, meaningless. The FDA has no definition of "low-carbohydrate" and has never approved any low-carb labels. Any food can be so labeled.

When it comes to low carbohydrate food, make sure all the claims are true. Not everything that says low carbohydrate food is all it's cracked up to be. Do a little research first and then decide if it's right for you.

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